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ABC Makes Good
On Banco ELCA Deposits
When the Asociación Bancaria
Costarricense (ABC) made the
announcement back in August that
it would pay depositors up to
˘4.500.000 (us$10.000) at failed
Banco ELCA, there was as sigh of
relief by many small depositors,
who with the experience of other
failed private banks, were
writing off their savings.
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We got ours!
Cheque drawn on the Banco
Interfin was used by the ABC
Fidecomiso Banco Elca to pay our
deposit at failed Banco ELCA.
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That sentiment was clouded when, in it's first
issue the ABC backtracked on the original announcement of ˘4.500.000
and would only pay depositors up to ˘500.000 or about us$1.100
dollars.
Small depositors were asked to make their claim, to which the ABC
had made available up to us$2 million dollars.
However, to the surprise of ABS officials and as well as bank
employees, the lines never formed, only a small amount of depositors
made a claim.
The ABC expanded the payout to include the full ˘4.500.000 colones
in mid October.
Depositors with the aggregate amount on deposit from all types of
investments at the Banco ELCA could make a claim and get paid.
The offer was not extended to business accounts and corporations
with deposits at the bank.
As a small depositor, of the bank, we took the opportunity to file
the appropriate claim form, with accompanying documentation and were
asked to wait one week for payment.
When the bank was intervened by the
Superintendencia General de Entidades
Financieras on June 29 of this year, we took a wait and
see attitude. And with the months passing by, the arrest of the
president of the bank, Carlos Alvarado Moya and two executive
officers of the bank, the hope of recovering our deposit was bleak.
So, it came with great surprise when we visited the bank's main
offices in La Sabana and after being shuffled through a couple of
different desks and short waiting period, a member of ABC handed
over a cheque for the full amount of our deposit.
The cheque was drawn on an account by the ABC Fidecomiso Banco Elca
on an Interfin Bank and was promptly cashed by an Interfin teller.
The ABC is asking all small depositors to visit the main branch of
Banco ELCA, located on Avenida 8, only two blocks from eastern limit
of the Sabana park and make their claim.
The future of the bank is still up in the air. The SUGEF has
recommended that the bank be dissolved, as attempts to sell the bank
have failed and the lack of interest by Alvarado (who is in his
third month of preventive detention at the San Sebastain jail) to
present a reorganization proposal.
Employees of the bank - only a reported 10% left the bank - are
waiting on the news, while keeping a positive attitude of some small
hope that their jobs may be saved.
On our visit Monday, employees were setting Christmas decorations in
the main lobby of the main offices, a lobby that was once full of
life, energy and movement, now is more like a wake.
SUFGE officials will only say that news on the future of the bank
will be forthcoming soon!
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